


Oliver

by Mildredo



Category: Glee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 15:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2030061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mildredo/pseuds/Mildredo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver is eight years old when he finally meets his parents.</p>
<p>He was starting to think he would be alone forever.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He’s never had a friend. Kids his age think he’s weird. Older kids think he’s so weird he needs to be beaten up. Little kids point and stare and sometimes cry when they see him.</p>
<p>Oliver is different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oliver

Oliver is eight years old when he finally meets his parents.

He was starting to think he would be alone forever.

He doesn’t like the children’s home very much. He likes foster homes even less. There’s always too many children and too much noise.

He was abandoned as a baby. No one could trace his birth parents. They named him Oliver and made his surname the name of the home. Midtown. Oliver Midtown. He doesn’t feel like a person, he feels like a place.

He’s never had a friend. Kids his age think he’s weird. Older kids think he’s so weird he needs to be beaten up. Little kids point and stare and sometimes cry when they see him.

Oliver is different.

He got really sick when he was a baby and it left him blind in one eye. The other eye can see but it’s not very good at it, so he has to wear thick, gawky glasses that make his eyes look massive. He’s small; the doctors said that it stunted his growth. He doesn’t really know what it is, but grownups seem to understand each other when they’re talking about him. His legs aren’t very good, either. He walks slowly, with sticks to prop him up, and in the winter when they’re really bad he has to use a wheelchair. He has big, puffy hair that gets in his way. He likes superheroes because they make him think that anything is possible.

He’s scared of the new home at first.

No one has ever wanted to keep him. They’ve always said he’s too much work, that he’s not suitable, that their existing kids didn’t like him. There’s always an excuse; he doesn’t expect this time to be any different.

It is, though. It’s not a mom and a dad this time. It’s always been a mom and a dad. Now it’s two dads and no mom. They live in a big house without a doorstep and a huge backyard to play in. The social workers install a lift on the staircase and if he stays, the lift will too. They have a cat and Oliver grins when he finds out – he’s always wanted a pet.

He acts out at first because that’s what he does. He’s scared he won’t stay. He’s scared they won’t want him so he’s giving them a proper reason. But they don’t get mad. They don’t get mad when he throws tantrums or when he chucks their stuff around without caring how valuable it is. They’re calm and patient and, eventually, Oliver calms down.

He’s staying. He knows it.

He has two new dads. Their names are Kurt and Blaine. Kurt is tall and he has a strange voice at first but Oliver likes it a lot. He thinks it’s soothing and he likes it when Kurt puts him to bed because the stories he reads are always the best. Blaine is smaller and he wears funny clothes that Oliver wants to try on. He’s never worn a bowtie before. Blaine spends a whole afternoon teaching him how to tie the one he picked out because it had the Superman symbol on it. Once he can tie it, Blaine says he can keep it. Oliver promises it’s going to be his most prized possession forever and ever.

They ask him if he’d like to have a new last name. He says yes immediately. He thinks Oliver Hummel-Anderson sounds much better. It feels like being a real person at last. They ask if he’d like to keep calling them by their names or if he’d like to use ‘dad’ names instead. He takes a while to decide. He chooses to call Kurt ‘daddy’ and Blaine ‘dad’, but only in public. He wants the first names to be just for home.

He’s nervous about going to a new school. It’s much different to his old school. He has to wear a uniform and he’s going to be learning French and Latin. He feels smart in his uniform, important. He’s a bit sad that the tie isn’t a bowtie – he’s really good at bowties. It’s scary and big and everyone else seems much smarter than he is, but his teachers are nice. Even the other kids are nice. They don’t think he’s weird or treat him like he’s different. He’s assigned a buddy to help him find his way around and ride with him when he uses the elevator so he doesn’t have to go alone. Ciaran quickly becomes his best friend.

He makes lots of friends.

His dads throw him a birthday party when he turns nine. He’s never had a birthday party. He doesn’t even really know when his birthday is. When he was abandoned, the doctors said he was about a week old. So they guessed at when he was born and made the date official, but he doesn’t know for sure. He asks if, next year, they can celebrate his adoption day instead. Dad says they can celebrate both.

He’s scared no one will come to his party. He still can’t quite believe he has friends. He’s scared they’re all pretending. He hides in his room just in case. He comes when he’s called and finds the backyard filled with all his friends. There’s jello and ice cream and a cake shaped like Superman. There are gifts and games and everybody sings to him and he blows out forty five candles, enough to make up for every missed year.


End file.
